Trip Report - Laniel July 14th-21st

[eric]

We (Me, my Wife, my 10 month old, my dog, and 2 of our friends) piled in the truck and started our annual trip 600 miles north the night of Friday the 14th at about 6:45pm. We usually drive through the night to avoid traffic (specifically through Toronto). It was a smooth trip all the way through. We even saw a moose on Rte 101 about 10 minutes away from the public boat ramp in Laniel - I've seen a number of moose in my years coming to Kipawa, but this was the first time everyone else in the group had seen one.

Most of the 15th was spent unpacking, setting up the cabin, and settling in. I'm quickly finding out everything takes a bit longer with a small child.

Before I get into any more details of the trip, I would like to preface with although I have been coming up to Lake Kipawa for my entire life - the past 28 years - I just recently got into fishing last year. I'm still in the learning phase, so we just tried to do as much reading as we could to educate ourselves on what works, along with trial and error. We did more swimming and hanging out at the cabin than anything since it was a family vacation, but when we did get out to fish, this is what happened:

Sunday the 16th was the coldest day of the trip. We managed to get out on the boat and do some fishing for a few hours in the afternoon. We decided to do some trolling with some crankbaits that dove 5'-7'. We caught a walleye and a pike.


Sunday night we had two more guys join our crew - my brother in-law and my wife's cousin.

Monday morning we tried some fishing from our property throwing white curly tails on jig heads and dragging them slowly along the bottom and caught a few walleye.


Monday afternoon we dropped our two new guys off at the public ramp near their truck so they could go grab some fishing licenses. We did a bit of trolling while we waited for them (again with the 5'-7' crankbaits) and lucked into a trout not too far from the ramp.


Tuesday our neighbor came over and asked if we would like to join him for a fish later that night. We gladly accepted since we are still trying to learn as much a possible. Two of us went with him that night and we caught about 16 keeper walleye between the 3 of us. We used 1/8 oz jig head and nightcrawlers along the bottom in about 20-28ft of water.


Wednesday we took the day off from fishing to and did some swimming and hanging out at the cabin. Wednesday night we had a delicious walleye dinner from the fish we caught the night before.

Thursday we did some fishing at the dam in Laniel to end the trip. We caught a few walleye and a few small mouth.


Friday we packed up and headed home.

Overall we had beautiful weather. The bugs didn't bother us too bad. We came home with our normal amount of bites.

I had a great time and can't wait to get back up there again next year (Or maybe in September if I can sneak away for a long Labor day weekend).

[SgtCrabby]

Fantastic report Eric. Good pictures too.
Thank you for sharing your trip.

And welcome to the board.

[johnny walleye]

sweet trip

[T-Bone]

Nice report from some fellow NE Ohio fanatics...thanks. Sounds like a short but successful fishing trip. Nice work. Pattern sounds about right for this time of year. Gotta love white curly tails... 

Speaking of '@600 miles north'...where has that guy been?

[NortonJoe]

Great report...sounds like you had a great trip.  Only 3 days until we make that trek north!!!

[Ozmo]

Enjoyed the report. Sounds like everyone had a good time. Thanks for posting.

[Nancy]

Thanks for the great report. Sounds like you had a pretty good catching trip too for newbies. And more important a great trip for family time and comradery. Welcome aboard!

[600 miles north]

Hey... I know you! Yeah T-bone I have been MIA this summer for sure. Eric is trying to pick up the slack for me! Going fishing with Richard is the best thing you can do to learn the lake up there. I know no one better to help you find fish. They are great neighbors to have! Nice trip report cous! I'm proud... pictures and all! Hopefully I have some bigger ones to post when we get back! Haha. I'm just happy to get away at this point. The 600 miles north at the beginning of your report has a nice ring to it! Hope your parents are enjoying themselves up there now, and holding the fort down for me! Cheers, good to see you on here E!